WARREN ELLIS is a graphic novelist and author of the NYT best-selling novel GUN MACHINE. His graphic novel GLOBAL FREQUENCY is being developed for television by Jerry Bruckheimer and FOX. He is the writer of the graphic novel RED, adapted into the film starring Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren. His next book is NORMAL from FSG.

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Published January 20, 2006 by Warren Ellis

William Gibsonon JT Leroy

I guess this is the literary equivalent of phantom limb syndrome, but now that I’m pretty much convinced that J.T. Leroy never existed, I catch myself regretting never having met him. I think that might mean that he was America’s first idoru, in the fullest Japanese sense, paradoxically manifesting mainly on our oldest mass-media platform, the printed word.

Austin

“To present yourself as a person who is dying of AIDS in a culture which has lost so many writers and voices of great meaning, to take advantage of that sympathy and empathy, is the most unfortunate part of all of this,” Mr. Silverberg said. “A lot of people believed they were supporting not only a good and innovative and adventurous voice, but that we were supporting a person.”

Article: AOL News since The Times has click-blocked their edition of the article.

You’d think that more people in the Internet age would be used to people being totally disconnected with public personae. I know, it’s so necessary for some people, I suppose fiction writers in particular, to connect with someone that supposedly personifies their own craft as well as so many other unwelcome tragedies known to this life.

You’ll get over it, Gibson. At least “he” didn’t ask anyone for money. That happens way too often on the Internet, by people whose only apparent talent is fraud. At least Courtney Love got liner notes out of it.

Anyone who thinks this it’s sad that people had to lose “sympathy or empathy” over this, I’ve got this wicked little page-turner called “A Million Little Pieces.” No, I haven’t read it.